Semafor reports on a recent meeting by some pretty heavy hitters to strategizde how to stop this sabotage campaign by No Labels:
A coalition of Democratic and Republican anti-Trump groups are organizing an aggressive, multi-front campaign to stop the independent group No Labels from injecting a third major candidate in the upcoming 2024 election.
Their plans, laid out in a private, roughly 80-minute call obtained by Semafor, include legal attacks, opposition research and warnings to potential candidates and donors that involvement with No Labels could make them politically toxic.
No Labels, founded in 2010 by a top Washington political fundraiser, Nancy Jacobson, bills itself as an answer to America’s divisive partisan politics, and has sought to present a poll-tested centrist platform. Democrats believe any such effort is far likelier to pull votes from Biden than from Trump, whose support
The call, organized by the center-left Democratic group Third Way with the help of the progressive Move On, also included representatives of End Citizens United, the Lincoln Project, American Bridge, Public Citizen, and Reproductive Freedom for All. Attendees included prominent anti-Trump Republicans Sarah Longwell and Bill Kristol, former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, and an aide to the Democratic billionaire Reid Hoffman, Dmitri Mehlhorn.
“Through every channel we have, to their donors, their friends, the press, everyone — everyone — should send the message: If you have one fingernail clipping of a skeleton in your closet, we will find it,” one speaker said during the call. “If you think you were vetted when you ran for governor, you’re insane. That was nothing. We are going to come at you with every gun we can possibly find. We did not do that with Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, we should have, and we will not make that mistake again.”
The group laid out plans to discourage a set of possible candidates, including: former Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Will Hurd; sitting Republican Governors Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire; former Republican governors Jon Huntsman of Utah and Larry Hogan of Maryland.
They seem to realize that appealing to the No Labels people themselves is probably a fool’s errand. They are focusing on the potential candidates as they should. You’ll notice that the people on that list are all Republicans which in a normal world should help Biden. But the polling shows that it ends up hurting him instead by providing a spot for the swing voters he needs to counteract Trump deluded cult.
They do mention Manchin but one of the people said they’ve heard he’s not going to do it which a spokesman later said wasn’t true. We’d better pray that it is.
This must be stopped. Look at what these saboteurs are talking about now:
No Labels, the organization attempting to assemble a third-party presidential unity ticket, is openly floating the prospect of a “coalition government” forming after the 2024 election if no candidate reaches the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the White House.
Officials with the group are mapping out an unlikely and largely unprecedented scenario where they could be in a position to cut deals on policy, Cabinet posts or even the vice presidency if their still-unformed ticket manages to win electoral votes and blocks a major-party nominee from winning the presidency outright.
“It’s possible that if you got to the Electoral College and no candidate had 270 [electoral votes], that there could be negotiation to create a coalition government where electors get traded between different candidates to get somebody over 270,” Ryan Clancy, the chief strategist for No Labels, told reporters on Wednesday. Clancy added: “There are quite a number of states that have what are called ‘unbound electors,’ which is to say: Those electors are not statutorily required to vote for the candidate that won their state at the Electoral College.”
In 33 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, laws prevent “unbound electors,” statutorily requiring electors to vote for the presidential and vice presidential candidates who won their state’s popular vote.
Former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, a co-founder of No Labels, expanded on the group’s view of this potential scenario in an interview with NBC News on Thursday, suggesting the No Labels ticket could “cut a deal” with one of the major parties’ tickets.
“It could be Cabinet posts. It could be a policy concession. That’s the kind of thing it could be,” Davis said, adding the vice presidential position could also be part of the discussions.
Davis said a “deal could clearly be cut” to “swing faithless electors over” to another ticket’s candidates.
“It could be, for example: ‘We’re going to build a border wall [and] not run deficits.’ Any number of things,” Davis said.
In the video conference call with reporters, Clancy said that a coalition government is not “the plan” of No Labels, which is seeking to place a presidential ticket on the ballot in all 50 states.
“One thing I really want to clarify: This is not No Labels’ plan. This is not No Labels’ strategy,” Clancy said, adding he wants to put forth a ticket that can win the Electoral College outright.
Davis also said that the group is looking at another potential, if far-fetched, outcome: A contingent election in which the president is selected by the U.S. House.
My God. Can it be any worse?
And by the way, look at the agenda he mentions. Basically they are planning to blackmail the Democratic party into passing the Romney agenda. Fuck that.
Grrr. Happy Hollandaise, everyone. We have our work cut out for us.
